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Fair  View  Mission  Station 

By  F.  G  race  Allen  ^ 


BANANA  GARDEN  ON  MISSION  FARM 
Price,  5  cents 
Published  by 

THE  WOMANS  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY 
FREE  METHODIST  CHURCH 
1134  Washington  Boulevard 
Chicago,  Illinois 


Fair  View  Mission  Station 


A  mission  station  in  Natal,  South  Africa,  is 
usually  a  portion  of  land  set  apart  for  mission  pur¬ 
poses.  where  native  Christians  can  live  and  enjoy 
the  privileges  of  church  and  school. 

Fair  View  Mission  Station  is  in  the  southern 
part  of  the  British  province  of  Natal,  which  has 
the  Indian  Ocean  for  its  eastern  boundary.  The 
station  land  extends  to  within  half  a  mile  of  the 
sea.  It  is  sixty  miles  south  of  Durban,  the  prin¬ 
cipal  seaport  and  largest  city  of  Natal,  and  about 
four  hundred  miles  southeast  of  Johannesburg,  the 
metropolis  of  South  Africa. 

The  surface  of  Natal,  rising  gradually  from  the 
sea,  is  divided  into  three  terraces:  the  coast  ter¬ 
race.  at  sea  level ;  the  midland  terrace,  2.500  feet 
above;  and  the  upland  terrace,  which  includes  the 
Ilrakensburg  Mountains,  on  the  western  border, 
with  snow-capped  peaks  over  ten  thousand  feet, 
above  the  sea.  Fair  View  is  in  the  coast  terrace. 
It  is  about  thirty  degrees  south  latitude.  The  cli¬ 
mate  is  semi-tropical. 

The  mission  farm  contains  2,300  acres  of  land, 
covering  over  three  and  onedialf  square  miles. 
This  land  belongs  to  the  Missionary  Board  of  the 
Free  Methodist  Church  of  North  America,  and  is 
used  exclusively  for  missionary  work.  One  fair¬ 
sized  river  and  a  smaller  stream  water  the  farm. 


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( lie  I’nmunbi  (Bad  City)  flowing  through  tho 
northern  part  of  the  farm,  and  the  Njainbili  (Two 
Dogs)  through  the  southern  part.  The  surface  is 
hilly.  Bishop  Sellew  described  it  as  a  “series  of 
sugar  loaves.”  A  missionary  living  near  wrote 
that  "it  is  hills  rolling  into  each  other,  and  out  of 
each  other,  just  a  wild  tumble  of  hills.”  There 
are  beautiful,  picturesque  spots  on  the  station, 
where  blue  sea,  and  deeper  blue  skies,  waving 
palms,  chattering  monkeys,  and  birds  of  brilliant 
plumage  charm  the  eye  and  please  the  fancy. 

Mr.  W.  S.  Woods,  the  business  manager  of  the 
farm,  is  a  regularly  appointed  missionary  of  the 
Board.  He  was  for  years  a  successful  farmer  in 
the  United  States,  and  the  knowledge  and  experi¬ 
ence  thus  gained  have  been  very  useful  to  him  on 
the  mission  field.  In  addition  to  the  superintend¬ 
ing  of  the  farm  work,  he  acts  as  landlord  to  the 
seventy  or  more  tenants  on  tho  farm;  an  unenvi¬ 
able  task,  which  he  lias  performed  for  the  last 
fourteen  years  with  such  skill  and  success  as  lias 
proven  that  the  Missionary  Board  made  no  mis¬ 
take  in  choosing  him  for  this  responsible  position. 

The  seventy  odd  tenants,  over  five  hundred 
souls,  counting  the  women  and  children,  who  re¬ 
side  on  the  farm,  belong  to  the  Zulu  tribe,  and 
were  all  heathen  when  the  farm  was  purchased 
twenty-five  years  ago.  Quite  a  number  of  the  orig¬ 
inal  tenants  have  left  for  one  reason  or  another, 
and  their  places  have  1  een  taken  by  others.  At 
present  the  majority  of  them  are  either  Christians 
or  nominal  Christians.  Each  tenant  has  a  portion 
of  land  allotted  to  him  for  which  he  pays  an  an¬ 
nual  rent  of  one  pound  sterling  without  reference 


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to  tlie  number  of  acres.  lie  is  only  allowed  to 
build  one  bouse  for  this  amount.  If  he  builds  two 
houses  his  reut  is  doubled.  The  people  all  work 
in  the  gardens,  the  men  and  boys  usually  doing  the 
clearing  and  ploughing,  and  the  women  and  girls 
the  planting  and  weeding.  They  grow  corn,  beaus, 
sweet  potatoes,  pumpkins,  kafflr  corn,  peanuts, 
and  a  variety  of  native  foods.  Each  family  has 
a  few  fowls,  and  many  of  them  have  cattle,  pigs 
and  goats.  They  are  not  allowed  to  make  or  drink 
beer  on  the  farm,  and  the  banishing  of  this  enemy 
has  made  them  much  more  thrifty  than  their 
neighbors  who  live  outside  of  the  mission  station, 
and  who  spend  a  good  portion  of  their  ■  time  in 
brewing  and  drinking  native  beer. 

Most  of  the  tenants  live  in  wattle  and  daub 
houses,  that  is,  houses  with  square  walls  made  of 
sticks  woven  togther,  and  plastered  on  the  outside 
and  inside  with  mud.  They  are  thatched  with 
grass.  A  few  are  still  living  in  round  native  huts, 
resides  the  native  homes  on  the  station,  there  are 
three  iron  houses  occupied  by  missionaries.  There 
is  also  a  church  built  of  brick  with  a  seating  ca¬ 
pacity  of  three  hundred,  a  brick  school  building  of 
three  rooms  which  accomodates  the  day  school,  a 
brick  cottage  for  native  teachers,  and  a  brick 
building  with  some  iron  additions,  for  the  girls’ 
home.  The  church  has  over  one  hundred  members. 
'Two  preaching  services  are  held  each  Sabbath.  A 
Sunday-school  of  over  two  hundred  members  is 
maintained,  and  weekly  prayer  and  class  meetings. 
Fair  View  church  supports  its  native  pastor,  and 
sends  an  offering  to  other  foreign  fields  yearly. 

Fair  View  Home  is  a  boarding  school  for  Zulu 


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Kiris.  It  has  eight  grades,  two  of  which  are  in  the 
vernacular.  There  are  two  departments,  a  pri¬ 
mary  and  an  upper  department.  The  girls  are 
taught  housework,  garden  work  and  needle  work 
in  addition  to  the  ordinary  branches  of  study.  The 
school  gets  a  grant  in  aid  from  the  government, 
based  on  the  efficiency  of  the  work  done,  and  the 
average  attendance. 

The  day  school  is  aided  by  the  government  to 
the  extent  of  paying  the  salaries  of  its  native 
teachers.  It  is  a  graded  school,  having  six  grades, 
two  of  which  are  in  the  vernacular,  and  the  re¬ 
mainder  in  English.  Both  boys  and  girls  attend. 
The  boys  are  taught  gardening,  and  the  girls  nee¬ 
dle  work  in  addition  to  the  regular  school  work. 
The  school  is  in  session  nine  months  of  the  year. 
Attendance  is  compulsory  under  the  apparent  age 
of  sixteen.  Upon  completion  of  the  course,  if  they 
wish  to  continue  their  studies,  the  boys  go  to  Ed- 
waleni  Training  School,  and  the  girls  to  Fair 
View  Home. 

The  main  problem  facing  us  to-day  is  how  to 
save  the  rising  generation  to  the  church  and  the 
mission.  They  have  been  to  school  and  learned 
many  things  that  their  parents  and  their  ancestors 
knew  nothing  about.  They  are  not  content  to  live 
the  simple  life  of  the  home,  nor  to  submit  to  paren¬ 
tal  authority.  Their  many  wants  require  more 
money  to  supply  them  than  they  or  their  parents 
can  earn  at  home,  so  many  of  them  go  away  to 
the  cities.  This  means  certain  ruin  to  the  girls, 
and  almost  as  certain  to  the  boys.  Many  are  em¬ 
ployed  by  surrounding  farmers,  or  in  small  towns. 
This  takes  them  away  from  Christian  influences, 


and  they  often  return  from  sueli  employment, 
moral  wrecks.  If  we  had  an  industry  of  some 
kind  on  the  station  that  would  provide  employ¬ 
ment  for  all  who  wished  it,  at  a  wage  sufficient  to 
enable  them  to  live  comfortably  and  educate  their 
children,  it  would  be  an  inducement  for  them  to 
stay.  With  plenty  of  land  at  our  disposal,  and 
with  fair  market  and  railroad  facilities,  such  a 
plant  should  be  self-supporting  in  a  short  time. 
It  would  take  labor  and  money  to  launch  it,  but 
the  returns  in  the  salvation  and  elevation  of  this 
colony  of  people  for  whom  we  are  directly  respon¬ 
sible  would  amply  repay  any  effort  of  the  kind 
that  should  be  made.  Fair  View  is  only  one  of  our 
stations.  The  Free  Methodist  church  has  two 
others  in  Natal,  at  Itemba  and  Edwaleni,  where 
practically  the  same  conditions  obtain  as  at  Fair 
View.  These  people  are  under  our  control.  A 
great  responsibility  and  a  great  opportunity  are 
before  us.  Will  the  church  at  home  not  come  to 
our  aid  in  this  important  work? 

July.  lf>20. 


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